asterisk users - Jun 2006 - Surge Protector for T1/PRI ?

Just recently a client of mine took a lightning hit, which in turn blew 
out their Digium TE411P board.  This just so happened to be their main 
office where their call center was located.  We had a backup card on 
hand, but this still meant downtime for the client until we got out 
there to replace the card.

I was thinking - what if we put a surge protector device between the PRI 
card and the circuit itself?  That way, the client themselves could 
replace surge protector units (if it got hit again) and protect our 
expensive telco equipment from getting damaged.

Has anyone else experience surges on a T1/PRI circuit?  What did you do 
to prevent further issues?
Anyone from Digium - do you see a surge protector device causing 
interferrence or a problem with the equipment?

Example device I'm looking at:
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PDIGITEL

Thanks!!

The APC units work well, they have a rackmount module system also.
Protect yourself from grounding mismatch with security and paging
systems on channel banks also.  Talk with your clients about emergancy
repair/replacement.



On 6/30/06, Dustin Wildes <asterisk-users@vecsector.com>
wrote:
> Just recently a client of mine took a lightning hit, which in turn blew
> out their Digium TE411P board.  This just so happened to be their main
> office where their call center was located.  We had a backup card on
> hand, but this still meant downtime for the client until we got out
> there to replace the card.
>
> I was thinking - what if we put a surge protector device between the PRI
> card and the circuit itself?  That way, the client themselves could
> replace surge protector units (if it got hit again) and protect our
> expensive telco equipment from getting damaged.
>
> Has anyone else experience surges on a T1/PRI circuit?  What did you do
> to prevent further issues?
> Anyone from Digium - do you see a surge protector device causing
> interferrence or a problem with the equipment?
>
> Example device I'm looking at:
> http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=PDIGITEL
>
> Thanks!!
>
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-- 
---
Andrew Latham - AKA: LATHAMA (lay-th-ham-eh)
lathama@lathama.com - lathama@gmail.com
If any of the above are down we have bigger problems than my email!
Hind sight is most always 20/20 or better.
---

I have used these in the past, with only one issue. The T1 line was at
the end of its tolerances as far as length from the repeater. The surge
suppressor ntroduced enough resistance to make the T1 bounce, like
Tigger.

Having the Telco put in a repeater closer to our facility made the
problem go away.

Something to remember about lightning, it is lazier than a teenager with
cableTV. It will always find the shortest (least resistive) path to
ground. Today that may be your T1 card. Tomorrow it may be your Ethernet
network. Look at placing one of these on your T1's as well as your
Ethernet network, and Power Supply. 

I am in Florida and lightning is a way of life. You can protect
yourself, you just have to think like a lightning bolt for a while.

Alex
Snip